Reliable like a Coming Storm
by Yaji's Girl
Summary: With a fear of marriage, Chuu Lee contemplates over just how the monotony of life can be as comforting as it can be disconcerting.


**I'm not certain of why I love fics about characters growing up so much, but I do. I hope you enjoy this one with the adventures of Chuu Lee and Pippi, a couple of friends that Goku meets during his training with Mr. Popo. Kind of sad, but mostly happy. Enjoy!**

Chuu Lee fidgeted slightly on the side of her bed, her legs now long enough to have her feet flat on the floor. She bit her bottom lip slightly as she smoothed out her kimono with a delicate hand, closing her eyes as she winced a bit. Her mother was behind her, combing out all of the tangles in her hair from a night of tossing and turning, often pulling more than a few strands out by the root. And as she opened them again, she noticed the clump of red hair her mother held in her hands. The thought alone of the amount of pain she had endured already, at the hands of her mothers relentless brushing, had her cringe.

It was finally that her mother tucked a strand of brown hair behind her own ear, sitting up on her knees on the bed after a successful job at removing all tangles from her daughter's hair. She smiled, murmuring, "You look beautiful already." It was her seventeenth birthday, and she was going to meet a potential suitor that morning.

Chuu Lee tried smiling for her mother as she turned around, only to flinch internally as she motioned her hand to rub her sore head. But at the gentle glare her mother gave her, she dropped her arm back to her side, knowing that she couldn't rough up the brushing job that had already been done. The hard part had been over, and now she just had to allow her mother to do the finishing touches on her makeup and put her hair up into whatever style she thought suitable that day.

"Come on, Chuu Lee!" her mother called, already in the other room. She gave a resigned sigh, standing up from her small bed and upon her black slippers, letting her kimono slide back in place over her legs. She didn't really want to grow up, but it was her duty now to her family, her mother. They needed money, and though Chuu Lee would prefer to be a child for the rest of her life, she supposed that it was worth giving up if it would please her mother.

Of course she would miss being able to run around the base of Mount Goro-Goro, watching the occasional lightning storms begin up there. Lately, however, the mountain had been dormant, which was a good thing, she supposed. But she still loved to watch as clouds concentrated there, gathered to strike their next prey. The last person to have fallen off of that mountain had been a small boy, a small, rather incredible boy who had been her height with spiky, black hair. If she could marry somebody who seemed as fun as he did, perhaps she wouldn't mind the prospect of being a bride as much. But as of the moment, the chances of having a husband that seemed at least somewhat interesting looked extremely slim.

She glanced out of the window of her bedroom, staring at the looming mountain in the distance. It was so tall that even out of that window, she couldn't see a the halfway point of the mountain, marked by a cloud layer. No, it was the tallest mountain in the world, she was convinced, even at this age. Never had she seen a structure so tall as it, and quite sadly, she noted that she probably never would. It was part of being who she was, being the daughter of a poor woman living in the middle of nowhere. She longed for adventure, but the only stories ever brought to her were from her little canary.

She was jealous of Pippi, her small, yellow bird that she had as her only companion. He had actually grown to be quite large, being just large enough for her to fit comfortably into her two hands. He certainly wasn't the same baby she had found him to be only a few years before, but she could sense him just the same. Unlike others, it wasn't necessary for her to use her five senses to be able to know if he was coming back or not, something that her mother had described as a remarkable 'sixth sense'. She could use it to keep tabs on people, too, but that wasn't often necessary, seeing as her mother either stayed in the house or outside in their small garden.

But Pippi was gone at the moment, exploring the world, leaving her with nobody but her mother to confide her thoughts in. So as she sat in front of the mirror in the small bathroom, glancing from her own dark eyes to those of her mother's, she asked, "Do I have to do this?"

Her mother had already plunged her hands into her daughter's smooth hair, a couple of pins stuck in her mouth as she asked incoherently, "Hm?" Then she removed one of her hands from the mess of hair and grabbed the pins all from her mouth, able to repeat her question more clearly. "What are you talking about, honey?" Her clear voice rang through the tiny room as she stuck a pin in place, already tackling the project of keeping her daughter's long hair to stay up.

"I'm talking about this whole business of getting married," she clarified, fiddling with the buttons on her silky kimono. Her mother glanced up at her in surprise through the mirror as she further confessed, "I'm just so young, and I don't feel like I'm... I'm ready, yet. I think that there's more to me than to just settle down some place around here, married with nothing to do."

With a smile on her lips, her mother chuckled lightly, "You'll always have something to do, something that I found out when I married your father." She strategically pushed another pin into place in her daughter's hair, explaining, "Even if you married the richest man in the world, I know you well enough to know that you could keep yourself busy somehow. Being married isn't bad - it's scary, but not bad."

"But I don't want to be married," she admitted, releasing a deep sigh as she looked at herself in the mirror, half of her hair already done in a bun on her head. She continued running the button of her kimono through her thin fingers, looking down in her lap in shame. "I want to be able to go wherever I want to, like Pippi."

Her mother shook her head, her grin falling slightly as she said, "Pippi's a bird, honey. All women need to settle down some time, and I'm afraid that it's your time to do it. You're young, but... there's something inside of me telling me that you're ready."

And the decision was final, the conversation over as her mother finished putting her hair up into its two characteristic buns, each tied off with red sashes that hung down a little. Chuu Lee managed a small, sorry smile, sad that her mother had put her foot down. She knew it was necessary that she get married to help support her mother, but it didn't seem very promising. Surely, surely there was some other way. This whole business of getting married was all too predictable for her tastes, much like the conditions on Mount Goro-Goro. She knew that one day its skies would light up with lightning again, though the uncertainty lay in exactly when such would happen, when the mountain would take another prisoner who had gone after its treasured crown. Whether it was tomorrow or ten years from then would be the surprise in life, that little surprise that was what made life adventurous.

The other surprise that she loved was Pippi's returns from his outings. Sometimes he would be gone for only a few hours, but then she was sometimes forced to endure weeks and weeks of the yellow bird's absence. And though those weeks were sad and lonely, Chuu Lee was always so overcome with joy whenever he returned. Her little Pippi was always so faithful, always coming back. He could be trusted to return, as could the mountain to storm, but could she place her trust in another man? Yes, she wanted adventure, she wanted the unpredictable onsets life through at her, but she only wanted to place her loyalty where she could trust it would stay, to come back. Could she really trust a man to stay with her, even throughout the turmoils of marriage?

Chuu Lee allowed her mother to run the powder brush over her cheeks and the a dark liquid over her eyelashes. She gazed at herself in the mirror, standing up nervously as her mother put the makeup away. She smoothed out the wrinkles in her kimono once more and patted her red hair, caught up in this business of marriage. No, it was likely a long way off - she couldn't marry for another year, at least. But it was a frightening idea all the same, placing her trust in a man that she hardly knew.

She followed her mother outside of the tiny house, waiting on the dry earth that surrounded Mount Goro-Goro. She stared up at its impressive figure, towering above other mountains resting at its base. The cloud layer covered its top, and though she couldn't be certain of exactly when it would storm up there again, she knew it would eventually. She knew it would storm up there just as she knew Pippi would return, but she couldn't be certain of the idea of being a spouse to somebody. It frightened her, both the predictable lifestyle and the unpredictable future, having no idea of who she would even marry in coming years.

She was right on most accounts. She had managed to settle down with a husband, having married a fine merchant in a nearby town, living now in a city with her mother coming to visit weekly. Life wasn't too predictable, as she had feared, and especially not after having her first child. And in the distance, when she was outside sweeping the porch, her son running between her legs, the clouds around Mount Goro-Goro stirred. The two of them stopped their actions, looking off to see exactly what was happening. And as they watched, they saw a large, yellow cloud approach them, heading straight over the town. Chuu Lee recognized a familiar energy from so many years ago, and her jaw dropped as she saw that same boy with spiky hair, a man now, with his own son hanging on to his back. She laughed a little, not having noticed the crown perched rather precariously on the small boy's head.

But she realized that nothing could be completely reliable. There was an emptiness in her heart as she always waited for Pippi's return, waiting for her plump, yellow canary to fly back into her open hands, to be a part of the family once more. But she never sensed his energy again, never even caught so much as a glimpse of him. But this certain unpredictable nature of life, with all of its twists and betrayals, was what made life interesting. Life was now as she had always wanted it to be; it was an adventure.


End file.
